Imago
Credit: Beth Dobbin IG (@bethdobbin)
Imago
Credit: Beth Dobbin IG (@bethdobbin)
200 comments on a single post that said it was time for her to hang up her boots. That’s the impact Beth Dobbin has had on athletics! From Daryll Neita to Keely Hodgkinson, Olympians rushed in with messages, turning it into a moment no one could ignore. But while retirement after a glorious career is never easy, what makes this one more difficult is Dobbin’s underlying health issue.
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After a long 3-year absence from track and field, Beth Dobbin, who holds her nation’s 200m national record, has now reluctantly called time on her professional career in a lengthy Instagram post.
“It’s with a heavy heart I announce my retirement from professional Track & Field,” Dobbin wrote on Instagram.
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She revealed, “For the past 3 years, I’ve been battling a serious & life-changing health issue.” Although Dobbin chose not to disclose the type of illness she’s battling, “I hope to go into more detail in the future (health willing), but unfortunately, it’s not something I have the capacity for at the moment.”
On April 13, the Daily Mail reported that the Scottish sprint star retired at 31 because of a heart issue. Beth Dobbin has not yet made a specific public statement about the condition. Yet, from Dobbin’s description, it sounds as if she has been through something miserable. “..the past 3 years, it truly has been unimaginable & the worst time of my life.”
She further detailed her illness, “Unlike injuries – where you are surrounded by physio expertise to get you back on track – this often isn’t the case with illness. Instead, it’s been a journey of getting answers & trialling treatment,” she said.
Dobbin feels robbed that she isn’t leaving on her own terms, but she’s being optimistic. “On one hand, my career feels like it’s been cut short & it feels cruel not to be retiring on my own terms. On the other, I achieved so much more than I ever expected.”
Unfortunately, health woes have troubled Beth Dobbin for a long. She was just 13 when she suffered an epileptic seizure that left her unable to walk. This was followed by years of anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). “I remember thinking ‘I’m going to die’, so I just wanted to let it happen,” she once said.
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Yet she bounced back from that uncertainty to finally break through as Scotland’s fastest woman. The now 31-year-old raced professionally for only three years but has been competing consistently since 2012. Then came her breakthrough in 2018, when Dobbin didn’t just win the British Championship in the 200m; she also broke the Scottish record!
A record that, at the time, had stood for 34 years when Sandra Whittaker clocked in at 22.98 seconds in 1984. But then Beth Dobbin showed up, and between June and July 2018, the then 23-year-old broke the record not once, not twice, but four times. She ran 22.84 seconds in the Eton UK Women’s League in early June and then 22.83 at the Stockholm Diamond League a little over a week later.
And as if that wasn’t enough, Dobbin then broke it twice at the 2018 British Championships, clocking in at 22.75 seconds in her heat and then 22.59 seconds to win the 200m gold. It was a rather marvellous display, and the now 31-year-old did it despite working multiple jobs at the time, including as a receptionist and parking supervisor.
It set the stage for her to eventually become a full-time athlete, and she eventually competed at the 2018 Athletics World Cup, the postponed 2021 Olympics, and the 2022 Commonwealth Games, winning bronze medals at the World Cup and the Commonwealth Games.
“There isn’t the space to list the highs I’ve experienced, but breaking a 34-year-old Scottish record, multiple times holds a special place,” Dobbin added. “As does my British title & going on to represent my country at 3 Euros, 2 Worlds, a Commies & an Olympics, becoming the first & only female Track & Field Olympian from Doncaster.
“When I raced at the Olympics, I was stunned to see how many people got up in the middle of the night to watch. It meant the world, as did experiencing the home crowd at the Commies. I will never forget the memory of walking out to so many people cheering my name. To come away with a medal was the icing on the cake.”
And while those moments defined her career, there was one in particular that stood above the rest. It’s the one she still looks back on as her proudest achievement.
Beth Dobbin reflects on her proudest achievement as an athlete
For Dobbin, being an athlete seemed almost impossible after she suffered a tonic-clonic epileptic seizure when she was just 13 years old. That severely hurt her ability to not just run but to enjoy a regular day-to-day life, with her plagued by flashbacks and anxiety even after weaning herself off the medication.
However, Beth Dobbin fought through all that and produced an emphatic return to the track, to eventually achieve her biggest dream. And for the now 31-year-old, that just happened to be the same as what most athletes have when they’re young, dreaming of the future.
“Becoming an Olympian is so special and no one can ever take that away from you,” Dobbin told Women’s Health. “I’ve dreamed about it since being a little girl – I look back on [past] notebooks and they say, ‘[When I grow up], I want to be a runner in the Olympics.’ So [it’s incredible] to do that after literally 20 years of blood, sweat and tears.
But given the struggles and hurdles Beth Dobbin faced, she also took pride in the competitions she won, including the British Championships in 2018.
“But becoming British Champion in 2018 was really amazing, too, as I was working full time [at Loughborough University] and I wasn’t professional,” Dobbin explained.
Now, even as her career comes to an end sooner than she would have hoped, those milestones stand as proof of everything she overcame to get there. And while the track may no longer be part of her future, Beth Dobbin’s journey will continue to inspire far beyond it.
Written by
Edited by
Firdows Matheen